Kotaku Saturday, September 21, 2024 11:00 AM  Sometimes you need a little help playing your favorite game, and that's okay. Or maybe you're in between games and are looking for a good recommendation, and that's okay, too. We have this week's best game guides, sales tips, and recs for you to peruse, from sprawling RPGs you should check out after Star Wars Outlaws… |
Kotaku Saturday, September 21, 2024 10:15 AM  It's fall, y'all. Well, almost. Officially, summer ends this weekend on September 22. So this is the last weekend for you to get in some quality gaming time before the trees start to change colors and the weather gets to a tolerable temperature. Even that's not promised, given the state of global warming. But you know… |
Kotaku Saturday, September 21, 2024 10:15 AM  It's another week which means we've got more takes, because that's what we do here at Kotaku. We love the retro-themed PS5 Pro, have some problems with The Plucky Squire, weighed in on the Space Marine 2 controversy, and spent seven hours with Dragon Age: Inquisition. Check out all of our opinions for this week in… |
Kotaku Saturday, September 21, 2024 9:45 AM  Rumors surrounding Nintendo's successor to its wildly successful Switch hybrid console continue heating up, with this week bringing us images that allegedly leak the appearance of the Switch 2. In other Nintendo news, the Mario maker, along with The Pokémon Company, are suing Palworld developer Pocketpair on the… |
Kotaku Saturday, September 21, 2024 9:15 AM  Welcome to the weekend, puzzlers! There's a rugged Connections waiting for you today—each group has one word that, when taken with the one word from another group, could easily form its own group. But they don't, so you'd be wrong. (Like we were, darn it.) Maybe you'll need some wake-me-up background music to get you… |
Kotaku Saturday, September 21, 2024 6:30 AM  Gravitational Missile is a Sorcery you can find in Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree expansion. Why would you want to? Because this spell is a visual treat that uses gravity to keep enemies pulled in, while dealing damage to them. Any Intelligence build with a focus on gravity magic will definitely want to add this… |
PCGamesN Saturday, September 21, 2024 12:35 PM  Watching your empire grow in the best city builders can feel like a true power fantasy, but in Frostpunk 2 it's both a necessity for survival and a terrifying mantle of responsibility. After a few small delays, the frostbitten strategy, management, and survival game has finally arrived, and it's looking like good news for developer 11 bit studios. Just one day after launch, the Frostpunk 2 player count has already topped the highest concurrent peak ever reached by its predecessor on the Valve platform. Continue reading Frostpunk 2 players surpass the original on Steam after just one day MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best city-building games, Best survival games, Upcoming PC games |
PCGamesN Saturday, September 21, 2024 12:11 PM  Baldur's Gate 3 is an intimate game. You and your party can get to know each other pretty well across the Sword Coast, and it's one of the many reasons the RPG has become an instant classic. Developer Larian leans heavily on authentic representations of relationships, sex, and intimacy, all of which paid off. You can't always reinstigate BG3's romance though, making it feel like a static point in time instead of an actual relationship. Well, a new mod changes just that. Continue reading Baldur's Gate 3 mod breathes new life into its best romance scenes MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Baldur's Gate 3 builds, BG3 mods, Baldur's Gate 3 classes |
PCGamesN Saturday, September 21, 2024 10:34 AM  Two decades is a long time to wait for something, especially if it doesn't live up to expectations. As each day, week, month, and year passes your assumptions shift, and it can be hard for whatever you were waiting for to be as life-changing as you hoped. Earlier in 2024 Homeworld 3 finally came out after 21 years, and it's safe to say it wasn't the game we space RTS fans were expecting. The post-launch roadmap still awaits, but now we're going to be getting everything at once, instead of it running into 2025. Continue reading Struggling RTS Homeworld 3 ditches roadmap, crams it into one update MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Homeworld 3 review, Best strategy games, Homeworld 3 system requirements |
PCGamesN Saturday, September 21, 2024 9:43 AM  When you think about it, RTS games are a bit like roguelikes, in that each mission is a chance to start fresh from nothing. Recruit workers, plant down buildings, and expand as you scout out threats and decide how best to counter them. Rogue Command takes things one step further, imbuing the classic real-time strategy of games like Command and Conquer with a roguelike progression of buildings, units, and upgrades in place of a traditional tech tree. Now, developer Feneq reveals the Rogue Command release date - and you can even jump in now thanks to a free Steam demo. Continue reading Roguelike RTS Rogue Command sets launch date, and you can try it now MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best RTS games, Best roguelike games, Best strategy games |
PCGamesN Saturday, September 21, 2024 9:17 AM  September 21: 2024: We've added one new Monopoly Go dice link for free dice rolls. How can I get Monopoly Go free dice links? The household favorite board game has been reimagined as a free-to-play app on smartphones, allowing everyone to experience the thrills of Monopoly on practically any device. Everything that makes the board game special is here in Monopoly Go, so you'll be collecting properties and building hotels as you go around the board, and there are a variety of multiplayer minigames to get through along the way. You're going to need to get your hands on Monopoly dice rolls, but they are difficult to come by no matter how far you are into the board game. There are ways to earn additional dice rolls, including logging into the game every day to collect daily bonuses, progressing further in the game, and inviting friends to try Monopoly Go. While you can also spend real money to unlock more dice rolls, you may want to give our list of Monopoly Go dice links a try instead, especially if you're waiting for the next Monopoly Go Golden Blitz event. Take a look at all the currently active Monopoly Go free dice links for today. Continue reading Free Monopoly Go dice links September 2024 MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best board games, Monopoly Go events, Monopoly Go dice |
PCGamesN Saturday, September 21, 2024 7:57 AM  It's been a fantastic week for Satisfactory. The open-world sandbox game and factory automation sim has rocketed up the Steam charts with its 1.0 launch, and still sits in the top ten most-played games on the Valve platform. As it continues to hit peak player counts well over 100,000 every day (and not counting Epic Store players, where it originally released), developer Coffee Stain Studios thanks its community. In a new post, community manager Snutt Treptow details some of the key issues the team is working on, and offers helpful workarounds for the meantime. MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best building games, Best sandbox games, Satisfactory mods |
PCGamesN Saturday, September 21, 2024 7:33 AM  2024 has been a goldmine of Half-Life discoveries. The series has sneakily reappeared in a Counter-Strike 2 update, a mysterious Half-Life 2 patch might hint towards 20th-anniversary celebrations, and Half-Life 3 feels closer than it's ever been. There's never been a better time to dig into Gordan Freeman's silent adventures. Now, if you're as much a fan of beta builds and cut content as I am, I've got a real treat for you. A decades-old disc containing a prerelease Half-Life build has been found, and it's been archived for good measure. Continue reading 'New' version of Half-Life discovered with cut content and secrets MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Whatever happened to Half-Life 3?, Best old games, Best FPS games |
PCGamesN Saturday, September 21, 2024 7:00 AM  Sometimes when I play strategy games, I can't help feeling like I'm clocking into work. Managing roads, budgets, and garbage collection in Cities Skylines 2 is brutally hard. The pressures of leadership in Civilization and Manor Lords are relentless. I like depth and detail, and a sense that everything I achieve is the product of ingenuity and time, but 'fun' in 4X and RTS games is highly subjective. Enter Planet Coaster 2. From Theme Park to RollerCoaster Tycoon, ScreamRide and beyond, the amusement builder has been a staple of strategy and PC gaming. What Frontier has achieved, at least based on my initial play test, is a smart mix of all the genre's mechanical staples topped with an unusual, unbridled joy. MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best strategy games, Best management games, Best building games |
PCGamesN Saturday, September 21, 2024 6:22 AM  While Space Marine 2 continues to rip and tear its way through the Steam charts, my personal pick of the best Warhammer 40k games is readying for a major update. Warhammer 40k Darktide takes the frantic Left 4 Dead style four-player action that developer Fatshark honed in Vermintide 2 and inserts it into the muck-slicked, grimdark 40k setting. It's an absolute blast to play, but it really shines when you're with a squad - so the upcoming Darktide Unlocked and Loaded update makes finding the perfect team easier. Continue reading Warhammer 40k Darktide is finally adding an essential co-op feature MORE FROM PCGAMESN: The best FPS games, Best Warhammer games, Best Warhammer 40k games |
PCGamesN Saturday, September 21, 2024 6:17 AM  Dead Cells will forever be my favorite roguelike. Hades 2 might show a lot of promise and Balatro might reinvent the genre, but the frenetic combat and ever-expanding world of The Beheaded is unmatched. Originally developed by Motion Twin, the studio handed the reigns over to Evil Empire to continue making DLC and updates, with excellent results. With that free time Motion Twin is now working on Windblown, which looks like the perfect follow-up to Dead Cells. The new roguelike isn't quite out yet, but we just got 15 minutes of uncut footage to keep us busy. Continue reading New Windblown footage proves it's the perfect Dead Cells follow-up MORE FROM PCGAMESN: The best roguelike games, All upcoming games in 2024, The best action games |
Siliconera Saturday, September 21, 2024 1:30 PM
Actor Munetaka Aoki will play Majima in Like a Dragon: Yakuza, which will be a live-action adaptation of the first game. Majima, along with Kiryu and Nishiki, appear on a new key visual for the show.
Aoki debuted in 2002 and has appeared in numerous Japanese films and TV shows over the course of his career. Some of his roles include Sanosuke Sagara in Rurouni Kenshin, Benkei in Taira no Kiyomori, and Kiso Yoshinaka in The 13 Lords of the Shogun. He also appeared as Sosaku Tachibana in Godzilla Minus One. He is joining Ryoma Takeuchi (Kiryu) and Kento Kaku (Nishiki), who are the two leads of the show. We can expect to see cast information for characters like Kazama and Haruka as we get closer to the show's premiere.
News for Like a Dragon: Yakuza first appeared earlier this year. As mentioned earlier, it will adapt the first game. Like in the game, it will jump between two eras—1995 and 2005—as it follows both Kiryu's return to Kamurocho and, most likely, Nishiki's descent into darkness. There will be six parts in total, with the first half appearing in October 2024. The second half will start streaming from November 1, 2024.
Like a Dragon: Yakuza will start airing on October 24, 2024. You'll be able to watch it on Amazon Prime.
The post Like a Dragon: Yakuza Key Visual Shows Actor for Majima appeared first on Siliconera. |
Siliconera Saturday, September 21, 2024 1:30 PM
CDs for the Fate/stay night 20th anniversary concert will appear from March 19, 2024. Those who purchase the first production version will also receive a limited-edition Blu-Ray. [Thanks, 4Gamer!]
The reason there are two different discs is because one of them is the Unlimited Blade Works concert and the other is the Heaven's Feel one. Both of them cost 3850 JPY ($26.75) each if you just want the CD. However, if you purchase one of the first production ones and can get the Blu-Ray bonus, then it'll cost 7700 JPY ($53.50). The Blu-Ray box will have a ufotable-drawn cover, a booklet, and a recording from the concert in question.
Fate/stay night came out in 2004 and was originally an adult game before Realta Nua replaced the sexual scenes with new ones, as well as voice actors from the 2006 Studio Deen anime adaptation. It follows Shirou Emiya, a young and inexperienced mage who becomes a participant in the Holy Grail War, which uses Servants—magical familiars that are heroes from mythology, history, or fiction—as their weapons.
There have been many spin-offs from the original Fate concept, including Fate/Samurai Remnant and Fate/strange fake. Fate/stay night itself is also a highly influential work, with many creators such as David Jiang of Honkai: Star Rail and Gege Akutami of Jujutsu Kaisen citing elements of it as inspiration.
Fate/stay night is readily available on the Windows PC, Nintendo Switch, and mobile devices.
The post Fate/stay night 20th Anniversary Concert CDs to Appear in 2025 appeared first on Siliconera. |
Siliconera Saturday, September 21, 2024 12:00 PM
All of the volumes of the Bocchi the Rock manga so far have been good at chronicling the development of both Hitori Gotoh and Kessoku Band! Entries have been funny and touching in equal measure. However with volume 4 of Bocchi the Rock, it really feels like the anticipation and potential is growing beyond what we — or our heroines — expected ahead of Unidentified Riot.
Editor's Note: There will be some minor spoilers for volume 4 of the Bocchi the Rock manga below.
When you think about it, Bocchi the Rock features a ton of development in very few volumes. The first one focuses on Hitori meeting Ikuyo, Nijika, Ryo. The four end up vibing together and becoming Kessoku Band. To think by the end of the third volume, they're already candidates for the Unidentified Riot music festival. It's a lot! So when the fourth volume rolls around, it's a bit of a mystery for those who might not be following the anime or spoiling themselves. Will they make it? Are they already good and popular enough? Will it instead be a harsh lesson? It's a lot to consider!
Especially since, as this volume of the Bocchi the Rock manga begins, everyone is a bit uncertain of themselves. Hitori is even considering her more popular account to promote Kessoku, but decides against it. It's only after an encounter with SIDEROS' members and playing with them that her, and perhaps our view as a readers, changes. Which means by the next few pages, they've jumped up to 28th place and placed high enough in the online poll. We get to revel in their success, and then savor the girls also enjoying themselves by bonding, shopping, and hanging out together. It's such a lovely pay-off.
Which honestly, I felt put me in an even better for the trial show portion of this story arc. Because again, there's this stress and anxiety. How will they do during the trial? Will the crowd and judges like them? Do they make it to the finals? It's an exciting and tense volume, to be sure. But the thing is, due to the brisk nature of the series, fun personalities coming together, and great development as we see everyone interact, it never feels bad or uneasy. Like if the best happens, we know Kessoku Band deserved it. If not, then because of the build up throughout this volume and previous ones, we know Hitori, Ikuyo, Nijika, and Ryo are getting strong enough as individuals and a group to take it and keep moving forward.
Like for those of us who have been following Bocchi the Rock for a while, both the anime and manga, we know the successes that lie ahead for Hitori, Ikuyo, Nijika, Ryo, and Kessoku Band. But there's still something so special about these early stages. We're seeing how much people believe in them! We're understanding even the early impressions their performances have on fans! It's exciting to see their hard work begin to pay off, as well as lead to hints about what could lie in their future.
Bocchi the Rock volume 4 is available now, and Yen Press will release the fifth installment of the manga on November 19, 2024. The anime is streaming on Crunchyroll.
The post The Bocchi the Rock Manga Excels at Building Excitement appeared first on Siliconera. |
Siliconera Saturday, September 21, 2024 9:00 AM
Back when I was a kid, I loved the original Tamagotchi virtual pets. Like so much so, I'd either sneak one with me when I went to school or have my mom care for mine while I was at class. But one of my absolute favorites was the Tamagotchi Angel model! I loved being able to "save" it from danger by tapping the screen, and I felt better about it possibly dying since, well, the character was already dead. (I was a sensitive kid!) While the Tamagotchi Uni Angel Festival doesn't include the same mechanics, I appreciate how this new unit and location pays tribute to that original model in certain ways.
The big "way" it calls back is by adding heavenly elements to the Tamagotchi characters and worlds. With the original Tamagotchi Angel, there were basically about 15 angelic characters that appeared depending on how well you cared for the pet. Here, we have six unique pets that take a familiar Tamagotchi, like Kuchipachi, Mametchi, Violetchi, or Yumemitchi, and they get ethereal elements like wings or other designs.
Like the Sanrio Characters variant, these different evolutions are tied to the items acquired at the Angel Festival location. So whether you buy a whole new unit or just pick up the $6 Tamaverse Ticket, getting something like a Mame-el or Yumemittie character is as easy as feeding a boy baby lots of Bell Brioche or girl one Ribbon Bread.
The cosmetic changes are the most obvious fun "nod" to the original Tamagotchi Angel, but the Tamagotchi Uni Angel Festival location proper is what really made me appreciate this release. That's because it really is pulling in those elements I remembered from the original model. They're all back as callbacks! One of the major characters you could unlock in that first game was the Chestnut Angel. It appears as an accessory for your pet to wear, lives in the town square, and is the character you control in the Angel Festival location minigame.
Many of the other angels you could raise in that older virtual pet show up when you visit different Tamaverse spots too. At a glance, I remembered seeing the former Japan-exclusive Cactus Angel, the Ginjirotchi one I used to often get when I first started playing, and even the Oyajitchi Angel. It honestly made heading to the Square more entertaining than usual, as it got me feeling all nostalgic.
The only downside is, I haven't seen some of my favorite original Tamagotchi Angel represented. I remember being able to unlock the Shogun Angel and Twin Angels in the past, and I didn't catch any reference to either one of them here. It would have been great to see those also make cameo appearances in the Square location. Or, in the case of the Ascension Hat that has two small angels with a passing resemblance to the Takotchi one, instead have the Twin Angels there.
I just appreciate the effort Bandai put into ensuring the Tamagotchi Uni Angel Festival Tamaverse and elements go above and beyond. It taps into the series' history in a fun way. Meanwhile, the new aesthetic for familiar icons really suits them well. It really honors the old virtual pet in a fun way.
The Tamagotchi Uni Angel Festival model is available now.
The post Tamagotchi Uni Angel Festival Calls Back to the Tamagotchi Angel appeared first on Siliconera. |
